Mediaboss Marketing

WOODLAWN An affordable apartment tower near the Obama Presidential Center site will soon receive a long overdue rehab, and residents will relocate as their units are renovated, the buildings owner said.

The Island Terrace high-rise, 6430 S. Stony Island Ave. in Woodlawn, will get repairs to its electrical and plumbing systems, windows, roof, boilers and faade.

All 240 apartments will receive kitchen, bath, flooring and other improvements, and the existing parking structure will be replaced with surface parking lots.

Preservation of Affordable Housing, a nonprofit with numerous properties in the neighborhood, bought the building in 2021 for $29.5 million and secured another $117 million to finance repairs in December. Construction is expected to take up to two years.

While there have been repairs made over the years, there really hasnt been a comprehensive rehab since the property was built in 1970, said Bill Eager, the nonprofits senior vice president of Midwest operations. This is long overdue, as the buildings systems are in rough shape. Almost all of those have to be replaced.

The nonprofit aimed to make all units affordable for renters making 30-80 percent of thearea median income, Eager said in 2021. As construction takes place, officials are expanding the long-term affordability of the property but will come up short of that goal, he said this month.

About 220 of the 240 units will have affordability restrictions, compared to 99 when Preservation of Affordable Housing took over at Island Terrace, Eager said. The remaining 20 will remain market-rate.

Hopefully, when were done, it should be a much nicer place to live, he said. Certainly, it should be set up for better long-term operations and affordability.

As unit repairs take place, residents will move out in stages starting in late May or early June. Tenants will be relocated two floors at a time for about eight weeks each, starting with the top floors, Eager said.

Plans are still being finalized, but officials expect to use the Jackson Park Terrace apartments another Preservation of Affordable Housing complex a few blocks down Stony Island Avenue to temporarily house Island Terrace residents, Eager said.

Tenants rent payments will be the same, while Preservation of Affordable Housing will cover any difference in utility costs and pay for moving expenses, he said.

If residents have any accessibility or transportation needs stemming from the move that for whatever reason arent met, welltry to help them with that, Eager said. But officials dont foresee many such issues, as theres only a short distance between the properties, he said.

Theres no cost to any of this for the residents, Eager said. Theres the inconvenience of having to move for two months, which is hopefully offset by the fact that their apartments should be in much better shape when they return.

The commitment to maintain affordable housing at Island Terrace comes as South Siders work toprevent displacement in the communityahead of the Obama Centers planned construction in Jackson Park.

The effort led to the citys approval ofhousing protections for Woodlawnin 2020 and to the introduction of a proposed South Shore housing ordinance to City Council in the fall with support from local alds. Desmon Yancy (5th) and Jeanette Taylor (20th).

Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:

Read this article:
Island Terrace, An Affordable Tower Near The Obama Center, Preparing For Total Renovation - Block Club Chicago

High-level Democrats are expressing concerns that President Joe Bidens campaign isnt following former President Barack Obamas reelection strategy enough.

Bidens reelection campaign has been growing the infrastructure in states key to keeping him in the White House, but some swing-state Democrats worry the president is taking too long to do so, according to a report.

In contrast, the Obama 2012 campaign had a large campaign machine of its own,Organizing For Action, and largely shunned the Democratic National Committee. Biden, meanwhile, is embracing the DNC as part of his bid.

State parties and local organizations were not part of the equation in 2012, New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley told CNN. The fact that the president has heavily invested in building up the strength of the state parties versus what happened in the first term of Obama I think youre going see the results of that.

However, Democratic strategists and even some Biden insiders reportedly said it is time for Biden to open up his checkbook. CNN also reported that Democratic operatives are frustrated with the slow buildup of state teams and infrastructure.

Following Obamas successful reelection run, DNC operatives were unhappy with the former presidents strength of cutting funding.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Former President Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, setting the stage for a rematch with Biden. In the weeks following and surrounding Trumps wins in the early voting states, Bidens reelection campaign rolled out state operatives in seven battlegrounds thatll sway the 2024 election, including Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.

While Biden is ramping up efforts in states where hes polling below Trump, some Democratic strategists believe Biden was too slow in sending out reinforcements, with less than 10 months until the general election in November.

Here is the original post:
Biden isn't following the Obama playbook and it's making some in his own party nervous - Washington Examiner

Three nations have pulled out of an economic union in West Africa that also tries to advance democracy in the region. The development, which causes concern about the stability and prosperity in that region, can be traced back to President Barack Obamas unauthorized and unwise drive-by regime-change war in Libya.

Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso are all run by military governments after experiencing coups in recent years, and the Economic Community of West African States has sanctioned the juntas for their undemocratic actions. In response to the painful sanctions, the three nations have pulled out of ECOWAS.

West African commentators said the countries departure could affecttrade relations and regional stabilityand cause pain in the other direction too, on the blocs remaining 12 member states, the New York Times reported.

Mali experienced a series of coups over recent years, and these were caused directly by Obamas regime-change war in Libya.

Nick Turse at the Intercept explains: In 2011, when a U.S.-backed uprising in Libya toppled autocrat Muammar Gaddafi, Tuareg fighters in his service looted the regimes weapons caches, traveled to their native Mali and began to take over the northern part of that country. Angered by the ineffective response of his government, Amadou Sanogo took matters into his own hands and overthrew his countrys democratically elected government.

The chaos and terrorism caused by deposing Gadhafi spread to Niger.

In 2016, Burkina Faso began to see a surge in militant attacks, as reported in Foreign Policy magazine. The violence spilled over from neighboring Mali in the wake of the 2011 U.S.- and NATO-backed revolution in Libya that toppled longtime Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi and contributed to the 2012 political destabilization of Mali.

(The Foreign Policy article also notes that the military that conducted the recent coup was armed by the U.S. beginning in 2009.)

Obama waged his drive-by regime-change war in Libya without any congressional authorization. He should have known better than to do this, because Obama spoke against the Iraq War, and predicted unintended negative consequences, as early as 2002.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Instead, Obama and his party celebrated their success in deposing Gadhafi, and he actually made it part of his reelection campaign in 2012. In his memoirs, Obama addressed his war, but showed zero reflection or remorse for the chaos and death he caused.

The effects are still being felt today.

Read more:
Chaos is spreading through West Africa, and it's Obama's fault - Washington Examiner

Malia Ann Obama looks all grown up as she smiles for the cameras at the premiere of her short film The Heart Premiere at Sundance on January 18. Photo: Getty Images Ever since the Obamas left the White House back in 2017, their children Malia and Sasha seem to have chosen a more normal life away from politics and the media, with Malia choosing to work behind the scenes rather than being in front of the camera.

Lets take a look into her impressive filmmaking career so far.

Who is Nigel Lythgoe, the SYTYCD producer being sued for sexual assault?

Malia Obama is a writer and director.

Last year it was announced that Obama was working as a staff writer for the Amazon Prime TV series Swarm, which came out in March last year. She worked with Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, who chatted about her to Vanity Fair in 2022. Shes just like, an amazingly talented person. Shes really focused, and shes working really hard, he gushed, I feel like shes just somebody whos gonna have really good things coming soon. Her writing style is great.

Per Harvards website, Obama majored in visual and environmental studies at the prestigious school, which may have further fuelled her interest in filmmaking.

According to IMDB, Obamas directorial debut short The Heart is described as follows: An unexpected request and a terrible loss bring attention to the intense and complex relationship between a mother and her son.

In her Meet the Artist video for Sundance, the budding filmmaker explained: The film is about lost objects and lonely people and forgiveness and regret, before adding that it also works hard to uncover where tenderness and closeness can exist in these things.

We hope that you enjoy the film and that it makes you feel a bit less lonely or at least reminds you not to forget about the people who are, Obama said on behalf of her filmmaking team, per ABC News.

8 of the richest comedians in 2024 net worths, ranked, from Ellen to Jerry

It seems Obama has known for years that she wanted to work in the entertainment industry. As reported by Yahoo! Entertainment, she started out by working as a production assistant on Halle Berrys CBS sci-fi series, Extant, when she was 15 in 2014, then spent a summer interning for HBOs Girls after she turned 17.

Its not just Malia who has expressed an interest in the film biz her famous parents have also dabbled in a handful of projects.

Barack famously declared himself the son of a Black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. Per Oprah Daily, his father Barack Obama Sr was a successful Kenyan economist, and his mother Ann Dunham was a high-achieving American anthropologist.

But perhaps one of the biggest surprises to emerge from the familys time in the White House spotlight came when it was revealed by the New England Historic Genealogical Society that the Obamas family tree extends to include George W. Bush.

What happened to Stormy Daniels? From paranormal investigations to a 4th marriage

However, the same article said that while these familial links are interesting, instances of people like Obama and Bush being related are genetically meaningless due to the fact that they are so far removed they barely have any genetic connection by this point.

Read more:
Malia Obamas film career so far from internships to her directorial debut - Style

The Boston trip was one of 83 Biden took last year outside of Washington, significantly fewer than the 113 taken by Donald Trump in 2019 but close to the 89 trips by Barack Obama in 2011, according to data from official presidential schedules, White House media pool reports, and a travel archive compiled by former CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.

Get Today in Politics

A digest of the top political stories from the Globe, sent to your inbox Monday-Friday.

Trumps number, however, was inflated by many more trips than Biden and Obama in the immediate vicinity of the nations capital, including 35 to his Northern Virginia golf club. Bidens travel included more trips to personal properties, vacation sites, and the Camp David presidential retreat than Trump or Obama.

Biden visited 29 different states last year, compared to Trumps 30 and Obamas 31, each of them heavily emphasizing states they had won as they prepared for an election year. Biden did more foreign travel, taking trips to 14 different countries or US territories last year. Trump went to nine and Obama went to 10 in their third years. Biden also traveled to two active war zones Ukraine and Israel while Trump went to one in 2019, Afghanistan. Obama went to none in 2011.

Biden also spent more time outside of Washington. The 223 full or partial days he was away from the nations capital exceeded Trumps 197 and Obamas 153. More than half of Bidens trips last year 47 involved nights away from the White House. That compares to 27 for Trump and 23 for Obama.

Theres much talk about Bidens age, but he has traveled aggressively and extensively just like many of his predecessors have, said Brendan J. Doherty, a political science professor at the Naval Academy who has studied presidential travel.

Still, Republicans have criticized Biden for his travel, both for not doing enough of it and doing too much.

President Biden needs to get out of Delaware and Washington, D.C., go see the rest of the United States and see how our communities are getting by under his economic policies, Senator Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, told Fox News in September. For heavens sake, Bidens got to get out of the basement.

The Republican National Committee has hammered Biden for his frequent trips to his two Delaware homes and other vacation spots, including Camp David. The RNC claimed he spent 142 days last year on vacation, including trips to Nantucket, Lake Tahoe, and St. Croix.

Unlike Joe Biden, everyday Americans cant run away to the beach or Camp David when things get tough, RNC spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. Bidens not up for the job, and Americans deserve better.

The RNC figures include a broad definition of vacation, with White House officials and experts noting that a president is always on the job and can perform duties from anywhere.

The Globe analysis found Biden spent parts of 114 days at his personal properties or vacation sites last year, compared with 106 for Trump and just 23 for Obama. Biden has made more frequent use of Camp David, which can be a secure location for respite or official meetings. He spent parts of 30 days there, while Obama spent 17 and Trump just 7, the Globe found.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said Bidens drive has delivered historic results for middle class families as well as restored US alliances around the globe.

President Biden is eager to keep fighting for every Americans future, and continue sharing, in-person, the progress were making all over the country, while continuing to stand up for our interests all over the world, Bates said.

Biden reportedly has pushed to travel more and current and former staffers say his stamina is not a question despite his advanced age. Biden turned 81 in November. Trump turned 73 in June 2019 and Obama turned 50 in August 2011.

He travels in order to be more effective at what hes doing, said Ted Kaufman, a longtime Biden congressional aide who later was appointed as his Senate replacement when he became vice president. One of the reasons why hes been so effective in dealing with the [European Union] and NATO . . . is because he travels a lot.

Polls have shown about three-quarters of Americans believe Biden is too old to serve another four-year term. He can help dispel that by getting out of the White House, Doherty said.

But there are risks to travel. The Trump campaign has repeatedly mocked Biden in ads with a clip of him tripping multiple times on his way up the stairs to Air Force One in 2021. NPR reported last summer that Biden had started using a shorter set of stairs on Air Force One more frequently after he tripped over a sandbag and fell during an appearance at the Air Force Academy in Colorado in June.

The opposing party is always ready to pounce on any potential physical or rhetorical stumble, but they will also criticize the president if he stays at the White House, so the presidents team likely concludes that hoped-for benefits of travel outweigh the potential risks, Doherty said.

Despite last months Boston trip, Biden took fewer trips last year that involved a campaigning or fund-raising event than Trump. Biden had 22 such trips, nearly identical to Obamas 21 but much less than Trumps 40, many of which involved campaign rallies. A Trump spokesperson did not respond to emails requesting comment.

Typical of his predecessors, Biden focused his travel on states that he won in the 2020 election: 19 of the 29 he visited. He made 10 trips to the battleground state of Pennsylvania, where he was born. That was more than any other outside the Washington metro area except for his current home state of Delaware, which he visited 28 times.

Trump traveled to 18 states he won in 2016 out of the 30 he visited in his third year in office. Texas, which he easily won, was his most frequent stop (eight trips) outside the D.C. region aside from Florida, where he has a home. Obama went to 24 states he won in 2008 out of his total of 31 visited, with deep blue New York (10 visits) topping his list outside the Washington area.

Doherty expects Bidens travel to accelerate this year. He found that presidents dating back to Jimmy Carter travel most in their fourth year in office as they campaign for reelection. This January, Biden traveled to 10 different states, including Pennsylvania and South Carolina twice, topping the five states he visited in January 2023.

Presidents tend to be quite confident in their ability to communicate, and believe that they can build support if the public understands the presidents many efforts on their behalf, he said. And travel is one key way that they try to do that.

Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at jim.puzzanghera@globe.com. Follow him @JimPuzzanghera.

View post:
President Biden's travel compares favorably to Trump, Obama - The Boston Globe